Bigham hope
The match crucially swung the American’s way again on the 17th after Gough went out of bounds and lost the hole after a double bogey. The two players then matched each other with birdies at the 18th to give Sargent a narrow one-hole win and ensure a perfect 4-0 record in the match overall.
“Just to get off to a good start individually and just kind of keep the momentum rolling was huge,” said Sargent. “Then yeah, obviously the difference between one half point and one full point is a big deal. To go 4-0 is really special, and it definitely means a lot.”
Jack Bigham hauled GB&I back to within two points at 12-10 after an impressive 3&2 victory against Gabrelcik, before McClean and Menante halved their match to give both sides a share of the spoils.
It was left to David Ford to win the match overall for the USA, draining a birdie putt on the 16th to seal a 3&2 win against Maguire to give his side an unassailable 13½-10½ lead.
Power restored pride for the home side after coming out on top against James by one hole, but it was left to Greaser to put the icing on the cake with a 3&1 victory over Nolan. The USA won the singles 7-3 leave the final score 14½-11½.
“We’re obviously disappointed,” said Wilson. “We had a nice lead this morning that we kind of let slide quite a bit in the foursomes. But I think the guys will be hurting the most because they'll know themselves and I'm sure they'll be feeling like they haven't turned up this afternoon in the way we know they can.
Home disappointment
“We always knew it was going to be a tight match. Like I say, everything went our way yesterday; six matches went up the last, and we got four-and-a-half points out of them. But you see all the momentum seemed to be on the US side today and things seemed to be going their way. Their players, to be fair, are a great side and they handled the conditions a lot better than our guys.”
Irishman Power, who also played at Seminole in 2021, added, “That US team is unbelievably talented. We all knew how highly ranked they were and we tried to block it out, but I think they really showed their class this afternoon.
“We gave it everything. Everyone wanted to do it for each other. Management, players were giving it everything. We felt like we gave ourselves the absolute best chance to get it done. Unfortunately we just didn't quite have everything this afternoon. But it’s been an unbelievably memorable week. I'll take so much from this, my last amateur event.”
For McCoy, he will always look back on a special week.
“These are the guys who did it,” said the Iowa native. “I just drove the sunscreen around. Who thought we were going to need it? It's pretty special. It's certainly the pinnacle of my golfing life.”
The 50th Walker Cup Match is being held at Cypress Point, California in the USA in 2025, with Lahinch in Ireland staging the 2026 contest.